


Drabbles 2012

by Garnigal



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 16:03:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18479614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garnigal/pseuds/Garnigal
Summary: Open on Sunday 100 word drabbles from 2012





	1. Life Before This (Sarah Polley Projects)

The life before this ended with silence. She was bruised and battered, but faced the darkness despite that. The darkness smiled at her weakness, and saw its opportunity.

The life before that ended with fire. She was brave and selfless, and raced through an inferno to save a stranger. She succumbed to the smoke, but the stranger never forgot her.

The life before that ended with wind. She fought between tall buildings, with wind whistling down streets empty in the night. The wind whisked away the dust, but covered the sound of approaching footsteps.

Life before life, ended too soon.


	2. Crown

She woke spitting and fighting. They’d used magic to down her, after she’d outrun and outfought every hunter they’d set on her heels.  
 _They wouldn’t risk a hunter to unknown magic. They still wanted to eat, after all._

She strained against her bonds. They’d tied her tightly, but left a length between her and the tree she was tied to.   
_They wanted her to fight, but not win. They needed to break her, after all._

She screamed with rage, but swallowed her pain. They’d looked at each other, pleased with what they’d done.   
_She was their crowning achievement, after all._


	3. Burns

She dances. A frantic twirl to the song she sings, about a truth only she knows the pain of. Each word is acid-dipped, sinking into the delicate flesh of those she loves.

She dances. A slow sway to the tune that fills her head, about a pain she has buried too long. Each note is barbed wire, flaying her flesh from her bones.

She dances to the magic that’s raising smoke from her feet. She’ll burn from the outside in, still frozen in the center.

Hands hold her still, douse the flames, stop the dance.

No one will burn today.


	4. First Meeting

If Darla didn’t meet him fever bright. Instead she coughed to death and was forgotten.

If Liam didn’t meet her laughing drunk. Instead he wed and regretted and drank to death.

If Drusilla didn’t meet him sweetly pious. Instead she kept visions locked behind lowered lids, prayed to death and was beloved.

If William didn’t meet her angrily embarrassed. Instead he loved his mother, wrote to death and was unremarked.

If they didn’t meet. If they didn’t rage. If they didn’t burn or fight or love and hate with all their passion and all their strength.

If they just lived…


	5. Plastic

The nights were long.

Eyes strained against dark shadows, searching for the movement that warned there was something waiting for its moment to catch you unaware. Ears filtering the sounds of normal life away, straining for that hint of a scrape against pavement that hinted there was something sharpening its claws.

It wasn’t like war, there were no long moments of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. There was always terror, always something waiting for its moment. She returned home exhausted from the vigilance, not the battle.

“Paper or plastic?”

The nights were long, but the days were longer.


	6. Tease

Kendra didn’t play. Never built castles with rocks and twigs, never held a rag doll and crooned a lullaby.

Kendra didn’t tease. Never leaned on a car and looked through lowered lashes at a handsome boy, never giggled and squeezed his hand.

Kendra didn’t shout. Never clenched her fists and stomped her feet, never argued for one more hour before curfew.

Kendra didn’t cry. Never curled on her bed and sobbed her heart out because of some small slight, never grieved a loss with silent tears.

Kendra trained, was called, killed and was killed in her turn.

Faith didn’t play…


	7. Think

She thought next year she might try out for cheerleading. The outfits were cute, even if the football team sucked.

She thought next month she might cut her hair. She was so tired of wearing it in a ponytail all the time.

She thought next week she might buy a new jacket. She’d saved enough from babysitting to cover the one she’d been eyeing.

She thought tomorrow she might go to the Bronze. It was that or stay home with her parents, and that’s just too pathetic.

She thought she heard someone behind her… and that was her last thought.


	8. Escape

She was sixteen when he came to town, with his clean, unstained shirts and heavy books in unrecognizable languages.

Her hands were hard and calloused from working in the fields, burned from cooking meals over a wood burning stove. Her clothes were dull from washing, simple and plain in design.

But he said he saw something in her, a bright spark that set her apart from her family and friends. He gave her hope that she wasn’t trapped into this life, made her dream of escape.

And he pressed a stake into her hand and led her into the dark.


	9. In & Out

She heard her mother downstairs. Usually there was comfort in the little sounds; teacup clinking, low voices on the television, pages turning dogeared as Mom lost herself in a new book.

Those weren’t the sounds tonight. There was tea, but it thumped forcefully. She could hear every footfall as Mom paced back and forth., and the television was as loud and angry as their argument.

She ached to go down, to let Mom hold her while she cried out her misery. But, as she stood with one leg out and one in, it was clear that wasn’t an option anymore.


	10. Lead

“Our Father…”

He sits at his mother’s side, but his attention is fixed on Lil Malick’s skirt, and how it displays her dimpled knees.

“Give us this day…”

He leads the prayer now, his strong voice and strong opinions building a church he can be proud of. He looks out over the congregation, attention caught by a girl in a short skirt.

“Lead us not…”

He travels to spread his message and finds himself trusted. If girls start disappearing when he visits their town, he prays all the harder for the poor lost souls, and leads the search parties.

“Amen.”


	11. Erupt

Volcanoes erupt – spewing poison and changing the very shape of the earth as red hot lava paints glowing trails down the mountain side.

Boilers burst – venting steam and melting the very paint off of the walls as heat and water find every invisible crack and fissure in the seeming solid concrete.

Tempers explode – spewing poison and venting steam. His father’s temper finds every crack in his armour, and paints red welts on his heart and mind that can never be erased.

To be safe, Wesley keeps his poison and his steam inside, where it can hurt no one but himself.


	12. Rebel

She wasn’t a rebel. She married young, and obeyed as a good wife should, cooking and cleaning, smiling politely and hiding her pain.

She wasn’t a hero. She birthed a son, and tended him as a good mother should, lunches and laundry, smiling sweetly and letting him lead.

She was a hero. She rejoiced in her daughter, and guided her as a good witch should, magics and mutiny, smiling proudly and offering strength.

She was a rebel. She died young, and left the legacy that a good woman should, pinched pennies and prayers, ensuring her daughter had a better life.


	13. Extinct

Extinction is quiet, without fanfare. There are no martial drum beats tolling each final breath. There is no fireworks show throwing light and colour on pale skin. There is no band playing Taps as blood leaches into thirsty soil. There is no audience, watching with tears in their eyes as the pulse in a throat flutters, stills… stops.

There is only a girl, broken on the ground and watching her too short life flash before her eyes.

There is only a girl, woken panting from a bloody dream and not yet aware that life as she knew it is over.


End file.
